Men work 42 minutes more per day than women, US study finds

Let the new battle of the sexes begin: A US labor department report finds American men work 42 minutes longer per day than their female counterparts, on average, although women spend more time looking after the homestead.

In a revelation as shocking as "humans breathe oxygen," the study conducted in 2015 and released this month identified a gender gap between household work and leisure that harkens back to an America portrayed in Mad Men.

While some would see this as evidence of men working harder, the finding “partly reflects women's greater likelihood of working part time.”

The extra 42 minutes is outweighed by time women spend working for no pay as well all that men spend on sport and leisure activities while women look after their home.

The 'fairer sex' spent an average of 2.6 hours on “household activities” (cleaning, cooking, lawn care, finances, and other household management), half an hour more than men.

The good news is that time women spent on ‘housework’ actually declined from 58 minutes to 52 since 2003, giving them a total of 72 extra minutes in the past 12 years.

And men appear to be picking up the difference, spending five minutes more on food preparation and the cleaning than they did during George W Bush's first term as president.

In fairness, 12 percent of guys are more likely to engage in “lawn and garden care” on a daily basis, while the ladies came in at 8 percent.

The ‘who provides more childcare’ question provides more ammo for the ongoing gender war as well.

Mothers spend one hour providing physical care (bathing or feeding a child) to their children versus daddy's 25 minutes.

Undermining the progressive male ego doesn’t stop there though. Men spend more time watching TV, socializing, and exercising.

In between paid employment, housework and child care, women managed to squeeze in an average of 5.1 hours of leisure per day while men spent 5.8 hours.

The study comes less than two weeks after it emerged that working more than 40 hours a week could increase chances of cancer or heart disease for women, while it has the opposite effect on men.

For some Don Draper wannabes, the extra time men spent at the office (as well as paying for dinner, flowers, and jewelry) justifies the 21 percent wage gap that exists between the sexes.

But then again, the increased risk of death and time spent on housework suggests they might want to take a time out in their 'man cave' instead of raising that argument.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that in 2015 women made 79 cents for every dollar earned by men.

The ultimate winners in the battle of the sexes are women, who still have a higher life expectancy of 81.1 years compared to just 76.4 'earth rotations around the sun' for men.